* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

He played for a variety of Portuguese clubs, finishing his career with a six-year spell at Estoril. He managed that club for three years before spending a season as coach of Sporting, during which they won the Portuguese Cup. He then worked abroad, first as manager of Greek club Olympiacos and then as head coach of Hull City, Watford and Everton in England.

On 10 June 2011, immediately after retiring, Silva was appointed director of football at Estoril. However, early into the season, he replaced Vinícius Eutrópio as manager,[10] with the Cascais team ranking tenth in the second tier.[11] His first game in charge was a 1–3 defeat at Penafiel[12] and, after losing only three matches in 24, he helped the club return to the top flight after seven years, as champions.[13] He ultimately was chosen as the league's Manager of the Year.[14]

On 4 June 2015, four days after winning the trophy, Sporting announced that Silva had been dismissed with just cause,[23][24] for not wearing their official suit in a cup match against F.C. Vizela.[25]

Silva subsequently guided the team to break the record of 11 consecutive league wins from the first matchday,[28][29] also recording a 3–2 success at Arsenal in the Champions League group stage.[30] The Piraeus side's run of domestic wins ended at 17, a European record in the 21st century,[31] but they nonetheless won a record 43rd title with six games remaining.[32]

On 5 January 2017, Silva was appointed as the head coach of Hull City until the end of the season, replacing Mike Phelan who was dismissed with the team bottom of the Premier League. Upon his appointment, club vice-chairman Ehab Allam said: "He has a great track record and we feel this is a bold and exciting appointment in our aim to retain the club's Premier League status".[34] Silva brought in his own coaching team, including assistant João Pedro Sousa, first-team coach Gonçalo Pedro and goalkeeping coach Hugo Oliveira.[35]

On 26 January, Silva's Hull defeated a Manchester United team, coached by Portuguese compatriot José Mourinho, 2–1 in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, giving the club its first victory over that opponent since 1974.[38] However, due to the latter's 2–0 win in the first-leg of the tie, the former failed to advance to the final,[38] but on 4 February they beat Liverpool 2–0 in the domestic league, giving the coach four wins from his first four home matches as manager.[39]

In March 2017, Silva stated that he wanted to end the groundshare agreement with rugby league club Hull F.C. at the KCOM Stadium, as the latter played on Friday and affected the pitch quality for his team at the weekend.[40] On 25 May, after the team's relegation, he resigned.[41]

On 27 May 2017, it was confirmed Silva would join Premier League club Watford as head coach on a two-year contract.[42] After a good start to the season, he was tracked for the vacant managerial position at Everton in November.[43] During this period and in the subsequent two months, the team's performances became increasingly poor (five points from 30 in ten Premier League matches), with fans citing his loss of focus as putting them at risk of relegation.[44][45]

Silva was dismissed by Watford on 21 January 2018, with the club citing the "unwarranted approach by a Premier League rival" that caused "significant deterioration in both focus and results to the point where the long-term future of Watford FC has been jeopardised".[46][47]

On 31 May 2018, Silva was appointed as manager of Premier League club Everton, signing onto a three-year contract.[48] His first game in charge was a convincing 22–0 win in a pre-season friendly over Austrian team ATV Irdning.[49] In February 2019, Everton agreed to pay Silva's previous club Watford £4 million in compensation in response to the latter's claim of Everton "tapping up" Silva in their previous interest in the Portuguese in 2017,[50] after they dismissed Ronald Koeman,[51][52] which Watford claimed affected their team performance leading to Silva's sacking in January 2018.[46][47]

On 21 April 2019, Silva guided Everton to a 4–0 win over Manchester United, making this the Toffees' largest victory over United in all competitions since their 5–0 success over the Red Devils in October 1984.[53]